.....My views on Christianity, the world and other general musings and meditations.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

A Little About Me

I come from old Lithuanian stock, my parents and whole family coming to Western Australia just after World War II, from Germany, where they were forced to work as slave labour for the Nazis. I was born and grew up in Perth, at the wonderful little riverside suburb of Bassendean, in the days when there were always empty paddocks and some remnant bushland to explore. Still a nice Perth suburb near the Swan River, but now filled with homes and only some small manicured parks, not that much for the local kids to explore anymore. The local Bassendean swamps with their birds and wildlife is where my love for nature, especially the birds, was kindled, and many years later resulted in me becoming a Zoologist.

I became a born again, Spirit-filled Christian in the mid 1980's, it was at a time of turmoil in my life due to many reasons, and my 'conversion', if you want to call it that, was nothing spectacular. Just a warm sunny afternoon, alone with the pastor of my auntie's church. After a 'chat', I accepted Jesus into my life. I suppose I had always believed in God, coming from the Roman Catholic faith of the family, but many in our family were now becoming Baptists, Church of Christ or Pentecostals, it seems even me! Looking back, I can see God moving slowly through our family.

I won't go into details, but it has been a rocky road for me with God, always my fault, wandering away, then life becoming a real mess, me coming back. Depression, which seems to run in my family, hasn't helped, plus I'm a thinking type of guy, analysing everything, so some aspects of faith don't come easy. I have always only wanted to know only the 'truth' of things, life and everything else, never to get sucked into some lie or error. I have studied evolution, philosophy, other religions and of course Christianity. Knowing the 'truth' is what matters. Where did I come from? Do I need to do anything while I'm here? Where am I going afterwards? Is there a God or isn't there? These are the questions that all humans want to know, but they can all only be answered by faith! The atheist or Christian, or any other religion, can't provide any formula or anything solid to back their belief, it's all faith.

The sin and saddest thing is that, these are the biggest questions, but we invest so little time into them. We will spend hours, days or years looking at the best investments, best insurance, car or house, and partners, but not really spend any time looking into the big questions! Do we think it's just too hard and we won't find the answers? Are many of us prepared to just float through life, the real answer if we find it, may not be the one we want?

I believe there is a God and at the end of things, when we all stand before him, he will say to so many, 'Why didn't you bother, to even spend some time trying to find out the truth?'